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Violet Liu
Violet Liu is a biologist and the science officer aboard the Intergalactic Republic ship ''Starship Iris'', a science vessel, and the only survivor following the explosion of the shuttle carrying the rest of the crew. She is rescued by Kay Grisham (a.k.a. Arkady Patel) after discarding the biological samples and climbing into the ship's cryogenic chamber to preserve fuel while the autopilot navigates to Kay's ship. Early Life Violet Liu was born March 11, 2163 in Minneapolis. From 2181 until 2185, she attended Harmony College, graduating with an undergraduate degree in biology. In her freshman year, she studied Intro Bio in a small class of 30 under toupee-wearing Professor Michaelis, as well as Early Pre-Crisis Folklore (exactly which crisis is not specified) because of a cute girl also in the class. She attended Harmony with another student named Violet Liu, a year ahead, also in the biology program, who was taller, less neurotic, and had better grades. After graduating, Violet worked as a skilled paramedic out near O-11. She completed a Master's degree from Everton in 2189 before going to work as a research assistant for Strauss & Marquez. Iris Disaster and Rescue Violet is alone aboard the Iris while the other four members of her crew perform their final scouting mission on planet 5925 in sector 284-325 using the escape pod/shuttle Scout-1. During their return, a catastrophic explosion destroys the shuttle, killing everyone aboard, and sending debris flying into the Iris' external fuel reserves. Violet sends out a distress call that is answered by war veteran Kay Grisham, who claims to be captain of the Philadelphia on a priority 3 diplomacy mission. Violet is resigned to dying alone in space, since a fuel level of 3% is not enough to power both life support and transport back to the station, but Kay helps her reset the ship's internal computer and suggests that Violet freeze herself in the ship's energy-efficient cryogenic chamber while Kay programs the Iris' autopilot to navigate to the Philadelphia. Kay also "discovers" that she and Violet shared an intro biology class at Harmony College in 2181, and though Kay had a crush on Violet, Violet does not remember her at all. When Violet inspects the autopilot route before climbing into the cryo chamber, she finds Kay has set it to the wrong coordinates. Suspicious, Violet challenges Kay to describe how the Harmony College campus smelled in the summer, and since Kay's information about Violet is limited to personnel files, educational records, and ship logs, she cannot answer. Kay admits that's not her name, and that she's not the captain of the Philadelphia, but she does still want Violet to survive, so taking a chance on her is preferable to dying. She also reveals that a couple other ships did detect Violet's distress call, but none came to her aid. Aboard the Rumor The rescue operation is successful, and Violet finds herself thawing aboard the smuggler ship Rumor, where Captain Kay Grisham is revealed to be First Mate Arkady Patel. The pair passive-aggressively antagonize each other while the rest of the Rumor crew loots Violet's ship for supplies, parts, and fuel (why they try to siphon the fuel is unclear, since the Iris was running on empty). Along with Crewman Brian Jeeter, Violet listens to a puzzling message Iris engineer and navigation officer Alvy Connors sent to Jeeter, and she provides part of the information Jeeter needs to decode Connors's secret meeting -- namely, that Checkpoint Osiris was planned to be checkpoint O-10, although it was never built. The Rumor crew asks Violet if she knows how to disarm the Iris' fail-safes, which have since begun a countdown. Despite the fact that Violet believes a science vessel shouldn't have these protocols, the Iris blows up when they detach, but the Rumor's pilot, Krejjh, outruns the explosion. Jeeter's decoding of Connors's message indicates that the "wrong" Violet Liu was aboard the Iris, and she is regarded with suspicion of being an impostor until she explains that the shares a name with another Harmony College biology graduate, and it appears that she was only sent on this mission due to a clerical error. Due to her paramedic background, she becomes the de facto doctor for the Rumor. Since her medical duties are limited, Violet spends much of her time pursuing lines of questioning into who the Other Violet Liu was, and why she was sent on a mission instead. After landing on Elion, Violet and Brian Jeeter pretend to be a couple ("Francesca Chen" and "Wolfgang Foxhaven") on holiday to stall for time while Arkady and Captain Sana Tripathi return with their fake IDs. Violet tries to convince the guard not to make a report to his superior, for fear of her "husband" finding out about her affair with "Wolfgang". Unfortunately, an IGR agent makes a radio announcement informing guards of the presence of Violet, Brian, and Krejjh on Elion and authorizes shooting to kill. Arkady enters through a ceiling grate and comes to the rescue, knocking out the guard after a fight. Category:Characters